The present invention relates to the field of entertainment media marketing, and more particularly it relates to portable display facilities for offering, demonstrating and selling media such as music compact disks at retail outlets and directly to attendees of live performances and other public events.
In recent years, progress in musical recording technology has brought it within the capabilities of many musicians to produce CD recordings of their own musical performances and furthermore to offer such recordings for sale through retail outlets or directly at live appearances. This is often done in a casual and somewhat disorganized manner by the musicians themselves, and the smaller retail outlets which are not part of large record store chains often lack suitable display and demonstration facilities for this purpose.
The present invention evolved in recognition of an unfulfilled need that has developed for a simple portable display stand to hold a small quantity of CDs on sale and also provide a CD player with a set of headphones to allow a prospective buyer to listen to a CD before purchasing. The invention is believed to be potentially beneficial not only to musicians selling CDs directly and small non-specialized retailers, but also potentially beneficial even to the larger specialized audio media retail chains as a marketing resource to be deployed in conjunction with existing larger and more comprehensive CD display facilities for further variety and expansion and stimulation of sales.
In the field of general merchandising of recorded music, non-portable commercial vending machines have come into practice, including some with headphone listening facilities.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,319 to Risolia discloses a non-portable VENDING MACHINE for vending articles such as CD""s, including a compact disc player and a headphone set.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,445 to Cooper discloses a DECORATIVE COMPACT DISC DISPLAY DEVICE that typifies a class of entertainment media which would be readily portable and suitable for displaying and selling music products but which fails to provide facilities for listening to the musical products.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a portable listening and display stand that is dedicated to direct marketing of entertainment media, in particular for displaying and selling compact discs to patrons at retail outlets and at live musical performances or other public events, where the musician may be selling CDs directly.
It is a further object that the portable CD listening and display stand be of light weight and low cost construction.
It is a further object that the portable CD listening and display unit provide an open storage compartment that will hold a small quantity of compact discs offered for sale and that will provide a vertical display panel for promotional literature or items on display such as a CD case.
It is an object to disclose a primary embodiment of the invention directed to a full scale production version which, while subject to new tooling requirements, provides overall cost effectiveness.
It is a further object to disclose a secondary embodiment directed to a low quantity pre-production version that can be readily assembled from existing and readily available components, to minimize tooling costs in an initial start-up phase of development.
The abovementioned objects have been met by the present invention of a low-cost lightweight portable display and listening stand configured particularly to directly display, demonstrate and sell media such as music compact disks in a general retail environment or directly by musicians to attendees of live performances and other public events.
A bottom compartment accommodates a CD player which is connected to a headphone set. An open bin located above the bottom compartment holds a small quantity of CD""s in xe2x80x9cjewel-boxxe2x80x9d cases, and a vertical display panel, extending upwardly from a rear region of the open bin, provides display of sales literature or display of product, e.g. one of the packaged CDs, and a storage hanger for the headphone set. The stand can be configured as a single molded plastic unit or assembled from two molded plastic portions; these could be made identical, and may be procurable commercially as molded plastic container bins.